Reagan Presidential Library Considers Booking Weddings : Simi Valley: Similar facilities have hosted such ceremonies. But a businesswoman is worried about the possible impact.
Banquet manager Mon-li at the Calamigos Ranch near Agoura Hills isn’t pleased at the prospect that she may have some new competition soon when it comes to booking weddings and receptions.
What upsets her is the idea that the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library may be luring away brides, grooms and the income they bring.
“I won’t be happy,” said Mon-li, whose 120-acre ranch has been a popular spot for Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks weddings for 10 years. “When the government starts competing with the private sector, it’s tough.”
The library is owned by the Ronald Reagan Foundation and leased to the government.
For Calamigos, which stages everything from country-Western to Victorian-themed nuptials, weddings are big business. From May to October, it books as many as four weddings a day on the weekends. A reception with 200 guests at Calamigos Ranch costs at least $10,000.
But with Reagan library officials saying there is a possibility that they may allow weddings, business conferences and parties, Mon-li and other potential competitors could lose some of those bookings.
Library spokeswoman Stephanie Salata said the library is only considering the possibility of booking weddings. “I’m interested,” Salata said. “But I’m not actively pursuing it. . . .It’s more like brainstorming at this point.”
Library Director Richard Norton Smith agreed. “It would be a mistake to say we’re huddling here planning weddings,” he said. “But we’re thinking about weddings as part of our general plan to reach out to the community. It’s just one of a number of possible ideas that have been floated internally.”
Salata said requests from the public would speed up the decision-making process. No rates have been established, she said.
John Fawcett, assistant archivist for the presidential libraries at the National Archives, said weddings and funerals have occasionally been held at other libraries.
At the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, which is privately run and operates separately from the National Archives, weddings help cover operating costs. A weekend wedding at the facility starts at $1,500, with a $2.95 surcharge per guest.
The Nixon birthplace has been the site of more than 100 weddings in the past two years, said Dhari Balvin, coordinator for special events. Republicans and Democrats alike flock to the gardens and outdoor amphitheater to exchange vows just yards from the white farmhouse where the 37th President was born.
The gazebo where Tricia Nixon was married is on loan from the White House as an exhibit. No ceremonies are allowed in it, only in front.
At the Reagan library, there is no gazebo, only a 6,000-pound chunk of the Berlin Wall, adorned with a butterfly and the word FREE in spray paint.
Assuming that a couple approve of the wall as a backdrop, steady winds tugging at bridal veils could be a drawback. Another drawback, one critic said, might be the library’s novice status in the complicated world of floral arrangements, 12-foot trains, vows and wedding toasts.
“We probably have a lot more experience,” said wedding coordinator Victoria Binetti of the Calabasas Inn.
There aren’t many places that specialize in weddings in Simi Valley. The park department offers informal facilities for weddings and receptions in several parks, while two hotels, the Radisson and the Clarion, book most of the more formal receptions.
“We’ve pretty much got a captive audience now,” said Deena Hildebrand, the Radisson’s wedding coordinator. “More competition is fine. Competition is healthy.”
Hildebrand, however, said federal regulations place restrictions on alcohol service on library premises, prohibiting cash bars. As a result, she said, “I can’t see them really hurting me at all.”
Some merchants said they didn’t see the library, despite its attractive hillside setting, as competing directly with them. Bonnie Didomenico, the banquet manager at Charley Brown’s restaurant in Thousand Oaks, said she thought the library would cater to those with more expensive tastes than her clients.
“Maybe it would take away from the hotels’ business,” she said. “I don’t think it would hurt mine.”
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In Moorpark, the Tierra Rejada Ranch is about to launch into the wedding and reception business, renting out a creek-side setting in one of its walnut groves. Owner Rick Brecunier said he expected his farm setting to appeal to couples who want something less formal than the presidential library.
“We are what we are, not a big fancy place,” he said. “We’re not trying to be anything more than a nice informal setting.”
Several visitors to the library from Wyoming stopped while strolling on its rose-tinted stone patio last week to consider its possibilities as a wedding site.
“It’s a fine view,” Harold Hunt said. “But it looks to me like that should be Ronald’s decision to make.”
His grandson, Barry Hunt, liked the idea.
“Seems like the right thing for a good young Republican to do,” he said.
